Tim Finn @ Upstairs Beresford,Sydney (30/08/11)

Wed 7th Sep, 2011 in Gig Reviews

There’s an earthy quality to Tim Finn’s music, and after 40 years of performing it seems as easy as breathing for him. The crowd at newly minted live venue Upstairs Beresford wasn’t asking for much, so between a relaxed entertainer playing some basic, easy-listening pop and a relaxed (older) audience, everything was set to mellow. Like, really, really mellow.

On The View Is Worth The Climb, his new record (9 and counting), Tim writes about familiar places, old friends, the simple things. These subjects may not contain the meaty stuff of great dramatic writing, but there’s nothing wrong with celebrating the more benign things in life too.

Tim approached the material and the performance as someone might approach the task of walking the dog on the local beach. There was a deeply ingrained level of enjoyment from Tim that transcended the task of practice and the discipline in playing music that resulted in an incredibly organic experience, and despite the fairly unimaginative song writing it felt too damn comfortable not to like it. Your favourite track pants have to be disintegrating before you throw them out, although you’d never wear them out to dinner.

The mix on the night was absolutely perfect. Tim’s voice was clear and held at a nice level above the instruments. Each instrument was given room and the baby grand (at which he seemed most comfortable playing, slightly tucked away from the front of the stage) sounded great. It wasn’t a busy sound, so the relatively small venue was a natural choice.

His band was good, particularly the strong input from familiar guitarist Brett Adams. What was lost though was any real sense of spontaneity, and everything the band produced was just a little too slick, right down to the tiny flourishes mid song. Only during the lengthy jam of Opposite Sign did they unwind a little, and the excitement it generated was refreshing.

Finn and co finished up with a couple of old tracks. Split Enz’ angular groove Dirty Creature was stripped back to something more elegant, and a lovely rendition of Persuasion from 1993’s Before and After record drew the crowd in for a nice finale.

The show wasn’t aiming to win over new fans, nor was it a patronising phone-in from an ageing pop star. Tim has enjoyed a creamy middle ground existence playing familiar music really well for some time and this enjoyment can so easily be transferred to a good live set like this one. He signed off with a vague intention to perform a new run of shows later in the year so if this kind of thing is your cup of tea then keep your ears to the ground.